Media Headliner: Why Altman is betting his career on Initiative

There is really only one perspective on Alex Altman the man - he is a
thoroughly decent bloke, undemonstratively charismatic with a dry sense
of humour, a tremendous leader and team player, an extremely deft
operator when it comes to client relationships.

But there are, tellingly, two diametrically opposing views about his
latest leap into the dark - even among his friends and closest
colleagues. A couple of weeks back, he was unveiled as Initiative's next
chief executive, to replace Gary Birtles, who is being eased upstairs
into an EMEA role. The date of this changeover has yet to be decided,
subject to talks with Altman's current employer, M4C, a Group M agency
ultimately owned by WPP.

In other words, he is leaving an innovative agency within the market's
leading media group to join ... well, an agency about which we have all
learned, in recent years, to be, at best, charitable and polite.

So, one perspective is that Altman is making a terrible mistake. It's
telling, some say, that a handful of similarly qualified people are
believed to have turned the job down. There might just be a good reason
for that. Altman's head was turned, surely, by Richard Beaven,
Initiative's worldwide chief executive, who probably offered him shed
loads of cash.

Not to mention the chief executive title, which most ambitious players
find an irresistibly attractive bauble. But if he'd been patient, surely
he'd have landed a suitably similar berth elsewhere. One with (how shall
we put this?) better prospects.

Utter nonsense, others say, including, naturally enough, Altman himself.
This, they say, is a stonkingly good opportunity. In this version of the
story, Initiative is a sleeping giant just waiting to be roused - and if
you want an analogy, look no further than Initiative in the US, whose
fortunes have been turned around thanks in no small part to personnel
changes orchestrated by Beaven.

Or, closer to home (and closer to Altman's personal experience), look no
further than Tom George and the wonders he has worked in the past five
years as the chief executive of MEC, formerly an ugly duckling in the
WPP media pond and now something of a swan.

In other words, how better to prove yourself than in taking on a supreme
challenge? And this, of course, is where all of the Altman perspectives
converge. Because no-one is foolhardy enough to downplay the enormity of
the task ahead.

Tellingly, when asked what qualities he will bring to his new role,
Altman focuses on one aspect of his time more than a decade ago at
Carat, where he helped turn around one of its specialist divisions. "I
have experience of change management - in making difficult and
considered decisions," he says. "You need to take a good look at what's
there, take the best of it and run with it."

Initiative, which has 60 staff, had billings of £151 million in
2009 (down from £221 million in 2008). Having carelessly mislaid a
handful of blue-chip accounts (Unilever, Vauxhall, Orange) during the
noughties, the agency now has only one major client, Tesco, which
accounts for well over half its billings.

And to succeed, Altman will have to make the agency punch well above its
weight, because it can't back up its individual offering, no matter how
clever and sexy, with the group buying clout of an OPera, Group M or
VivaKi.

As one rival agency boss explains: "Initiative's parent company,
Interpublic, set up a group buying unit, Magna, a good while back but
no-one has heard very much about it in recent years. And the one good
thing it had, even on a part-time basis, Mick Perry, has just left to
join Channel 4. I'd say that 99 per cent of media pitches have pricing
as a major component. Initiative just isn't competitive on that front.
So what's going to happen if Tesco comes into play? It's absolutely top
of everyone's hitlists across town."

Ah, yes, Tesco. But some sources warn against too glib an assumption
that Altman is just inheriting another accident waiting to happen as
regards this biggest surviving client. After all, the big retailers are
probably the most loyal advertisers in the marketplace.

What's more, Altman, by all accounts, is gifted with a potent form of
charisma when it comes to client relationships. Altman joined MEC in
2008, becoming its deputy managing director. Previously, he had been at
Carat, most latterly as its commercial director. His breakthrough
moment, clearly, was when he was chosen to head M4C, the agency created
by Group M to pitch for the centralised COI account last year.

He effectively won the biggest media pitch the UK market has even seen.
Not a bad entry to have on your CV. Apparently, the senior COI team (not
the easiest bunch of people to win round) warmed immediately to him - in
hindsight, some say, that was an important factor in the ultimate
outcome.

And that, says his former Carat colleague Neil Jones, now the director
of commercial strategy at News International, is why it would be highly
inadvisable to bet against Altman succeeding. "He is excellent at new
business and it's clear Initiative needs to compete in that area. It's
fundamental to its future," he reasons. "I'd also argue he's a good fit
with the Tesco business. I'd back him to make his mark on the agency and
turn it around."